Turning garbage
into furniture art

By Deana Lancaster
Contributing Writer deana@nsnews.com

WHEN Mehrdad Rahbar talks about recycling he
isn’t speaking about tossing dented soup cans in to
the blue box.

Instead, Rahbar takes old furniture, usually found on scrap
heaps, and turns it into something modern and functional — he
calls it “urban furniture.” His North Vancouver townhome is a
showplace for it.

A couple of years ago, before he moved here from Montreal,
he came across qvo crushed and broken scandinavian-style chair
frames, put out for the garbage men to pick up. Using standard
tools from his tool box (“nothing too fancy”) he transformed the
wood frames into comfortable furniture that passes as modern art.
He gets his entire family involved — his mother-in-law sewed the
cushions and son Aryan, 9, helps him sand the materials he uses.

Rahbar, an architect, makes the furniture as a hobby. He said
he is interested in making it for other people, but most of all “I
want other people to see the possibilities of salv; aging and re-mak-
ing old furniture instead of just throwing it out.”

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Friday, May 9, 1997 — North Shore News — 1?

MEHRDAD
Rahbar relax-
es on a chair
which he
recreated
from an old,
crushed
frame.

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